Preston man faces 15 years for store robberies

A Preston man is facing 15 years in prison after accepting a plea bargain Tuesday for his role in a string of local gas station and convenience store holdups in November 2011.

A Preston man is facing 15 years in prison after accepting a plea bargain Tuesday for his role in a string of local gas station and convenience store holdups in November 2011.

Frederick Barberi, 53, is expected to be sentenced on April 16 to 20 years in prison, suspended after 15 years served, plus three years’ probation. He pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree robbery.

Barberi’s son, Jason Barberi, 30, is facing an identical 15-year sentence after agreeing to a plea bargain of his own on Dec. 3. The father and son robbed several places together, according to police.

On Nov. 6, 2011, the two men robbed the Preston Mobil on Route 12, prosecutor David Smith said.

Frederick Barberi carried a box cutter, and Jason Barberi carried a baseball bat, he said. After threatening the clerk, the two stole between $600 and $700 in cash, Smith said.

The next night, Nov. 7, Frederick Barberi and another man robbed the BP gas station on Route 32 in Franklin, Smith said. One man carried a bat, and the second one implied he had a weapon, and they stole $153 in cash, plus Newport cigarettes, Smith said.

Jason Barberi is not charged in the Franklin robbery. He is, however, charged with being the lone robber of a Henny Penny convenience store in Pawcatuck on Nov. 5.

The duo are both charged in the robbery of a Cumberland Farms in Sprague on Nov. 10. At about 11:30 p.m., two men entered the store dressed in black and wearing scarves over their faces, according to police. They vaulted the counter. One started filling a Stop & Shop bag with cartons of Newport cigarettes, while the second, after wrestling away a broom the store’s clerk was swinging at him, brandished a knife and demanded money from her, police said.

They left with about $100 and 25 cartons of cigarettes, Smith said. Then when the clerk used a store phone to call 911, Frederick Barberi returned, held a knife to the clerk’s throat and demanded the phone, which she immediately dropped, police said. She received a small laceration from the knife, Smith said.

As a condition of the plea bargain, Frederick Barberi’s lawyer will have the right to ask for less than 15 years at Barberi’s sentencing April 16. Jason Barberi is scheduled to be officially sentenced Feb. 25.